


Devotion

by suyari



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/M, Pregnancy, Sibling Incest, Twincest, Twins, maxicest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-15
Updated: 2015-05-15
Packaged: 2018-03-30 14:51:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3940918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suyari/pseuds/suyari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A memory time will never erase.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Devotion

Clint notices first. 

Aside from the fact that his codename is the most apt Wanda has ever known, he’s quick to point out that he also has some practice in what to look for. He’s kind enough to wait to confront her about it. Takes her aside after a mission, the pair of them sharing a space just off a reinforced window at HQ. 

“No one’s going to fault you for taking a break,” he says. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she replies. 

“Wanda, it’s your own business, but we’re not exactly in the right profession to let something like this slide. Have you thought of what could happen out in the field?”

“It never stopped you,” she points out. 

“I had the easy part in comparison. I’m not judging, I’m just saying...I don’t think this is what...anyone who loves you would want for you.” 

What _Pietro_ would want for you, he tactfully doesn’t say. And he is right. 

“I’m not-” she says and can’t finish. 

“If you’re going to do this, at least tell Bruce. Please. You need someone on your side who’s...not me.”

“And what’s wrong with you?”

“I can do a lot of things, Wanda, but I can’t help you if…” 

They both swallow. Wanda presses both hands to her abdomen and closes her eyes. She knows. Of course she knows. But she can’t stay in and not do anything. Not when...not when keeping still will bring with it all the emptiness. The hollow reminder that she is alone. The aching pit that lives inside her, swallowing any happiness. She can’t take the chance. 

Her eyes open as a hand squeezes her fingertips. Clint’s eyes are earnest, pleading when her own finally lift. He’s leaned into her, keeping it between them and she’s grateful. 

She nods and he heaves a relieved exhale, chest visibly deflating. 

“Do you want…?”

“I can do it,” she tells him. “But thank you.”

He smiles and squeezes her hands again. 

 

~~

 

Bruce is kind. Too kind. She can see the struggle in his eyes as he looks at her. Can feel the tension she can see in his shoulders. There’s something he is trying to say, trying to soften. 

“I have heard a lot of things,” she informs him. “It cannot be the worst news someone can hear.” 

She’s already had that moment. The day they joined the Avengers. The day Pietro was taken away. The day the sun stopped shining and the world went cold. 

He takes off his glasses, cleans them unnecessarily and sets them back on his nose. It’s a nervous habit she is well aware of. It doesn’t help. 

“How far along do you think you are?” he asks. 

Wanda looks away. She cannot meet his eyes as she replies, “Two months.”

“Are you sure?” There is a desperation in the question, a leading tone, and she nods. There’s no way she could be anything more, anything less. The encounter still burns brightly in her mind, plays out on the backs of her eyelids like a movie. Haunts her dreams, plagues her nights, and leaves her longing with such desperation that it physically _aches_. 

He turns the screen around so she can see it clearly. “Wanda,” he says, a strange note in her name. “You’re nearly five months.” 

She means to shake her head, but she can’t move. Eyes wide, vision going slowly cloudy. Throat tight against the vision before her. She reaches a shaking hand out, pauses above the image. 

He confirms what she doesn’t need explained. Tenderly, he voices the direction of the screaming in her mind. “With twins.” 

 

~~

 

“How?” Steve asks. 

“If you have to ask,” Tony adds. 

Wanda is grateful, even if she can’t relay it. Team meetings are for serious things. They’re briefings, they’re war councils, they’re strategy discussions and deployments and mission reports and consolations. They are not...this. 

“My best guess,” Bruce says, and there is nothing in his voice now that pauses or quavers. He is a doctor and he is a friend. “Is that the answer is somewhere in the years of HYDRA experimentation.”

Steve’s hands curl into fists and they all know he is thinking of Bucky. Bucky who is still out there somewhere. Whispers in the wind, as good as he ever was. And driving Steve into a hole nearly as void as her own. 

Wanda wishes she could comfort him. Wishes to tell him the truth. But Bruce is keeping her secret. And she finds, there is no need to explain any further. Not when there is no reason to. With all hope and happiness but frayed threads dancing just beyond her fingertips like taunting memories. 

They are too much like their father. And perhaps too much like herself. 

“What’s important,” Clint continues, an arm draped across the table and all of his weight settled forward above it. “Is that HYDRA never finds out.” 

They all look at him, Wanda included. There is determination in his face. Clint already knows what no one wants to voice. They don’t discuss to it so much as all quietly agree. Thor only interrupting to offer Asgard for the birth. Wanda doesn’t want to give birth on another planet. But she doesn’t want to lose the only thing she has left. 

The Avengers are going to protect them. The faint flickers of anticipation flutter in her chest like a fledgling's wings. 

 

~~

 

William and Thomas Maximoff are born in a room fit for a Queen, on an alien planet that is the home of a dear friend. The sun shines like gold in the room, bouncing off of every angle to fall upon their sleeping faces. Others are concerned it may wake them, but Thor just smiles and laughs and launches a feast to celebrate.

Wanda is left with her children. Natasha and Sif quietly keeping company, acting guards, even though they won’t admit it. She strokes back the soft hair of her children, runs her fingers over their gently rounded features. Her heart is filling despite her loss, and she sobs over the twins lying quietly in her lap. The bed dips and hands close about her shoulders, reassuring and offering comfort. Natasha leans against her back, looking over her shoulder at her children. “They’re very handsome boys,” she assures her. “Pietro would be proud.” 

“Yes,” Wanda agrees, fingers slicking through pale strands. She leans forward, bringing one and then the other close. Kisses their brows and lays them against her chest, to be closer to her heart. “But he’d have something to say about someone being born second.”

“The ultimate revenge.”

Wanda laughs. “Or a perfect challenge.” 

Across the room, Sif meets her gaze and smiles knowingly.


End file.
